James Esdaile, M.D., E.I.C.S., Bengal (1808–1859), an Edinburgh trained Scottish surgeon, who served for twenty years with the East India Company, is a notable figure in the history of "animal magnetism" and, in particular, in the history of general anaesthesia.Yeates (2018), pp.122-130.
Family The eldest son of the Rev. James Esdaile, D.D. (1775–1854), a minister of the Church of Scotland,Scott, H., Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, New Edition, Volume IV: Synods of Argyll, and of Perth and Stirling, Oliver and Boyd (Edinburgh), 1923, p. 232. and Margaret Blair (1781–1843), he was born in Montrose, Angus, Scotland on 6 February 1808. He died in Sydenham, Kent on 10 January 1859.
He had three brothers, David Esdaile, D.D. (1811–1880) — an ordained cleric, who, along with James Esdaile (his brother), founded Edinburgh’s Ministers’ Daughters’ College (later known as Esdaile School), dedicated to the education of the daughters of Ministers of the Church of Scotland, and of Professors in the Universities of ScotlandScott, H., Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, New Edition, Volume V: Synods of Fife, and of Angus and Mearns, Oliver and Boyd (Edinburgh), 1925, p. 303. — John Esdaile (1813–1877) and Robert Esdaile (1816–1882), both of whom migrated to Canada, and one sister, Janet (1818–1819).
He married three times. His first wife, Mary Ann Christie, whom he had married on 6 June 1838, whilst on furlough in Scotland,Marriages, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 26, No. 104, (August 1838), p. 285. died on 9 November 1838, "in her 18th year",Deaths, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 28, No. 110, (February 1839), p. 142. on their voyage to India (they left England on 24 July 1838).Passengers to India: Per Duke of Bedford, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 26, No. 104, (August 1838), p. 284. His second wife, Sophia Ullmann — daughter of the Delaware banker, John James Ullmann (1754–1811) and Jeanne F. Ullmann (née LeFranc),Montgomery, E., Reminiscences of Wilmington, in Familiar Village Tales, Ancient and New, Johnston & Bogia, (Wilmington), 1872, pp. 200–201. and the sister of lawyer and, later, (Union) General Daniel Ullmann (1810–1892) — whom he married on 17 November 1842 at Chinsurah,Originally two adjacent settlements on the west bank of the Hooghly River, Chinsurah (a.k.a. Chuchura) and Hoohghly were merged into a single municipality, now known as Hooghly-Chinsura, in 1865. while stationed at Hooghly,Marriages, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 40, No. 157, (January 1843), p. 70.Esdaile's colleague, James Sutherland, the (at the time) Principal of Hooghly College, married Sophia's sister, Eliza Ullman, also at Chinsurah, a month later, on 26 December 1842. (Marriages, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 40, No. 159, (March 1843), p. 312). died in Calcutta on 27 July 1850, aged 44.Bengal, Past & Present: Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society, Volume 5, Part 1, p. 55; Deaths, The India News, No. 194, (24 September 1850), p. 399. He married his third wife, Eliza Morton (1807–1862) (née Weatherhead) in Calcutta on 3 February 1851.Marriages, The Indian News, No. 207, (2 April 1851), p. 153.
Education He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh,The University of Edinburgh was also the alma mater of John Elliotson and James Braid. graduating M.D. in 1829.Student Record for James Esdaile -- University of Edinburgh, Centre for Research Collections, Individual Records, Students of Medicine.His 1829 dissertation was titled De Narcoticis ("On Narcotics") (see List of the Graduates in Medicine in the University of Edinburgh from MDCCV to MDCCCLXVI, Neill & Company, (Edinburgh), 1867, p. 87).
India In 1830, he was appointed as Civil Assistant Surgeon to the East India Company, and arrived in Calcutta, Bengal (which was, then, the capital of Company government), in 1831.He was appointed on 10 February 1831 (see "1193. Esdaile, James", p. 103, in Crawford, D.G., Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615–1930, Volume 1, London), 1930), and was taken on strength as an Assistant Surgeon on 20 July 1831 (see The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 6, No. 24, (December 1831), p. 189).
Having suffered from chronic bronchitis and asthma since his adolescence, Esdaile thought that India's different climate would be of benefit. Five years later, he suffered a total breakdown while working at Azamgarh, in Uttar Pradesh,27 May (1835), The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 18, No. 72, (December 1835), p. 241. and, later, was given an extended furlough from 1836 to 1838.2 January 1836: "Assist. Surg. James Edaile, M.D., for health" (Furloughs: To Europe, The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia, Vol. 20, No. 78, (June 1836), p. 105). During this time he travelled extensively; and his 1839 work, Letters from the Red Sea, Egypt, and the Continent,Described as "a very entertaining, graphic and lively volume of letters" (Miscellaneous Critical Notices, The Calcutta Review, Vol. 6, No. 12, (1846), p. viii). was written as a result of these travels.
He returned from his furlough to Calcutta, and was soon appointed as Civil Surgeon to the small Hooghli Imambara Hospital;"Military: By the President in Council", Calcutta Monthly Journal and General Register, (November 1839), p. 26: No. 16 of 1839."The Hooghly Imambara Hospital … first established as an experimental measure in 1836 … derives its name from the fact that it originally formed a part of the Hooghly Imambara created out of the Trust Fund left by Haji Muhammad Mohsin": Banerji (1972), p. 610. and, through this appointment, he was also responsible for the hospital at Hooghly Jail. From November 1839 to December 1841 Esdaile also served as the Principal of the prestigious Hooghly College,Although he was unable to establish whether (or not) "the lectures were actually given", Zachariah (1936, p. 25) noted that, "in 1842, Dr. Esdaile, although no longer Principal, proposed to give some lectures on Chemistry and Physiology" — Zachariah was citing (see pp. 1 33, fn.85) "Extract from Proceedings of the Honorable the Vice President in Council in the Revenue Department under the date of 20th September 1831". located in the palladian mansion in Chinsurah that had been originally designed and built for "General Perron".Zachariah, K., History of Hooghly College, 1836–1936, Bengal Government Press, (Alipore), 1936 , p. 14; Annual Report of the College of Hadji Mohammud Moshin with its Subordinate Schools; and of the Colleges of Dacca and Kishnaghur, for 1850–51, F. Carbery, Military Orphan Press, (Calcutta), 1851, p. 42. The College had been founded in August 1836 by the Bengali philanthropist Haji Muhammad Mohsin,See Dey (1893: 96/192) pp. 286–287, and (1893: 97/194), pp. 354–366; also Chaudhury (2012), pp. 55–59 and Esdaile replaced the College's original principal — another surgeon, Thomas Alexander Wise, M.D. (1802–1889) — who had been promoted to the position of Principal at the Dacca College.In the (30 June 1853) evidence that Wise provided to the House of Lords' Select Committee inquiry into "the Government of the Indian Territories", he provided extensive details of the structure, function, and operation of the Hooghly College (see Sessional Papers, (1852–3), pp. 221–234). He was serving as the Registrar of Deeds for Hooghly in 1843,Crawford (1914), pp. 137, 153–156. and as Secretary of the Hooghly Branch of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India in 1843.Horticultural Exhibition at Hooghly, Journal of the Agricultural & Horticultural Society of India, Vol. 2, Part 1, No. 8, (August 1843), p. 191.
In 1846, Esdaile's work with pain-free surgery at Hoogly had come to the attention of the Deputy Governor of Bengal, Sir Herbert Maddocks. Maddocks appointed a committee of seven reputable (medical and non-medical) officials to investigate Esdaile's claims. They submitted a positive report (on 9 October 1846), and a small hospital in Calcutta was put at his disposal in November 1846.
By 1848, a mesmeric hospital supported entirely by public subscription was opened in Calcutta especially for Esdaile's work.
It was closed 18 months later by the Deputy Governor of Bengal, Sir John Littler:Gauld (1992), p.223. according to Cotton (1931, p. 170), although the Mott's Lane Mesmeric Hospital, which opened in 1846 and permanently closed in 1848, Elliotson "continued to practise mesmerism at the Sukeas' Street Dispensary until he left India in 1851".See also Webb (1850), pp. 26–28.
In 1848, Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India, appointed Esdaile to the position of Presidency Surgeon;Medical: Appointments, Allen's Indian Mail, and Register of Intelligence for British and Foreign India, China, and All Parts of the East, Volume 6, No. 103, (22 June 1848), p. 361; Letter from the Marquis of Dalhousie to The Poor Law Guardians of Exeter, 27 June 1856 (Esdaile, 1856, p. 4).A Presidency Surgeon "under[took] the duty of attending all sick officers, military or civil, stationed at or on leave at the Presidency (viz., the administrative compound of the Bengal Presidency)" (Crawford, 1914, p. 10). and, in 1849—whilst not supporting the continuation of the mesmeric hospital in Calcutta—Dalhousie had so much respect for Esdaile and his work, that he appointed him to the position of Marine Surgeon (serving the Indian Navy) on 29 May 1849.Government Notifications: Civil and Ecclesiastical: Appointments—Permanent, The Indian News, No. 167, (31 July 1849), p. 226.
Esdaile retired from the British East India Company in 1853, on the expiration of his 20 years' contract.
Esdaile and "pain-free" surgery
[Through my use of Jhar-Phoonk as both an anaesthetic and curative agent] I have introduced, and I hope may say established, a new and powerful means of alleviating human suffering among the natives of Bengal … [which has brought] painless surgical operations, and other medical advantages [to them]; of which I hope they will not be deprived. -- (Esdaile, 1846, pp.v, vii) The de-stabilising impact upon the prevailing (UK) medico-surgical mind-set of the astonishing news of the nature and number of Esdaile’s successful ‘pain-free’ surgeries [in 1845] … and how the challenges that Esdaile’s "pain-free" procedures, mistakenly thought to be "mesmeric", presented to the conventional medicine of his day led to the hurried, widespread adoption of ether two years later are a significant part of the history of anaesthesia. –– (Yeates, 2018, p.122, emphasis added)For example, Myers (1903, Chapter V, §.505, p.160:"Next [in the history of mesmerism, after the Marquis de Puysgur] came the era of Elliotson in England, and of Esdaile in his hospital at Calcutta. Their method lay in mesmeric passes, Elliotson's object being mostly the direct cure of maladies, Esdaile's a deep anaesthesia, under which he performed hundreds of serious operations. His success in this direction was absolutely unique; was certainly (setting aside supernormal phenomena) the most extraordinary performance in mesmeric history. Had not his achievements been matters of official record, the apparent impossibility of repeating them would probably by this time have been held to have disproved them altogether."